handmade by stefanie

28 Zoom Loom Squares! Now I just have to find a project for them... With February coming to a close tomorrow, I wanted to spend today taking stock on this month's goals: Weave one Zoom Loom square each day this month to build up a nice stash for making some projects from Margaret Stump's Pin Loom Weaving book. Completed! I took the liberty of weaving my final two squares ahead of time so that I have all 28 to photograph & share today.  Complete the  Foliage Cowl  for the  Holla Knits KAL  which starts today. Completed! This project was knit in under a week, and I blogged about it here . Complete my Curls KAL project ( currently in progress ). Not even close!  Finish 2 baby sweaters this month (one which is  already in progress  and one which is needle adjacent). Halfway There: the sweater-in-progress from the beginning of the month is complete , but I haven't even started the needle adjacent sweater due to some design deadlines wh...

Since two of my WIPS are top secret, today is going to be a very short post! I did manage to add a few more rounds to the first sleeve on my Block Island Pullover : Sadly, I didn't work very much on my Caesious Shawl in the last week, so my only other shareable project is my scrap yarn blanket - look at how much it's grown since last week! When I'm ready to start a new section of squares, I've taken to laying it all out beforehand to see how everything looks together, then taking a reference shot to work from. How's that for short, sweet & to the point?! See you back here on Friday, when I evaluate my February Goals !

Ever since Alegria was introduced from Manos del Uruguay, it's been on my must-knit list. It wasn't until just this month that the perfect opportunity presented itself: I'm working on a new design for an upcoming Holla Knits collection! I've enjoyed working with the other Manos yarns I've tried, and the fun colorways combined with a lovely base of superwash merino & polyamide made requesting Alegria for my design absolutely irresistible. Each yarn comes from a co-op in Uruguay and is certified Fair Trade, which means that your yarn purchase supports the livelihood of rural women, providing them with fair pay, good working conditions, health insurance, and more (you can read more here on the Fairmount Fibers blog ). Each yarn is signed by the artisan, telling you the name of the person who made your yarn and which co-op it came from: I can't wait to share my design with you when it comes out later this year. In the mean time, make sure that  Aleg...

I finished the all-in-one-piece baby sweater I've been knitting!  I used the Classic Cashmere Sweater pattern from Erika Knight's Simple Knits for Cherished Babies ; but instead of closing the back with a ribbon, I made a small tab with a crochet chain and sewed on this adorable button which was gifted by my pal Lauren. It's for a very special baby who surprised her parents by making her appearance two months early - while her Mom was visiting family and friends in New Mexico! Luckily, baby is doing well and getting stronger every day, and both parents are able to stay in New Mexico while she does so. There is a GoFundMe set up to help them cover all of the expenses associated with their extended stay away from their home, for those of you who are wondering about such things. Getting back to the sweater....I wanted to knit with the most luxurious yarn possible so that she has something nice and soft to wear when she was ready to graduate to actual clothing. I chose ...

Though the Caesious KAL is over(ish), I'm still plugging away at mine since I pretty much only work on it outside of the house - it's great for riding the CTA and taking to knit night! There really isn't much of a difference since last week, so I thought I'd go with a more interesting photo this week just to spice things up. Over the weekend, I started the first sleeve on my Block Island Pullover - although I didn't make it far: Both of these are slow going, though, because I have to spend most of my crafting time working on two new top-secret designs! Well, I am allowed to share some sneak peeks here and there...for instance, this beautiful and colorful skein of yarn came into my life recently, and it is going to become something fun! Of course, I wouldn't be me if I didn't totally distract myself by starting an new project which will likely take years to complete. Seriously, what was I thinking when I decided to start a worsted weight mite...

After much debate, I decided to chain-ply the single I spun recently from the 50/50 merino & alpaca roving I dyed with easter egg dyes. The fiber is a new offering from Blue Sky Alpacas , and it was a dream to spin - light, lofty, and very little veggie matter or guard hairs to slow me down. Before I knew it, I had filled my bobbin with a single and had to decide what to do next! In the end, I decided on a springy 3-ply: I spun the single on my Louet Victoria (and unfortunately didn't make not of my ratios - oops!), and then I chain plied on my Ladybug with my Bulky plyer. The finished skein is 4.2 oz (118g) and has about 78 yards of chunky weight yarn; now I just have to find the perfect project for it!

I finished my Foliage Cowl last Friday night, talk about speedy - it only took four days from start to finish! This project was super-easy and the epitome of instant-gratification. It's also a stellar example of the importance of blocking a finished project. Here is Exhibit A, my unblocked cowl: ...and now, Exhibit B, post-blocking:  I think the lace looks especially nice: I haven't had a chance to get any modeled shots since sunny days are hard to come by right now, but trust me, it's a nice chunky knit to snuggle up in this winter!  There are lots of great prizes up for grabs during the Holla Knits KAL , and there is plenty of time to join in the fun! The KAL runs through May 1, 2015, so grab some yarn and start your favorite Holla Knits design so you can win free patterns and maybe even some awesome goodies, too! Also, Craftsy is having a Valentine's sale this weekend, so if there were any classes you had your eye on, now is the t...

Over the weekend, I finished the front piece of my Block Island pullover - I am now just two sleeves away from a finished sweater!  Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to starting one of those sleeves, because most of my crafting time has been spent swatching for some upcoming designs. I did manage to squeeze in a little spinning time over the weekend, since I couldn't resist diving into the merino/alpaca fiber I'd recently dyed . This single spun like a dream, there was hardly any vege matter or guard hairs to slow me down. I'm now debating whether or not I want to N-ply it, or split it between two bobbins for a 2-ply. The fiber is HANDSPIN , which is new from Blue Sky Alapcas. It's definitely worth checking out!  I did make a little bit of progress on my Caesious , though it's probably hard to tell at this point:  That pretty much wraps it up for WIPs this week - thanks for stopping by!

It's been a while since I've broken out the easter egg dyes, but when a lovely box of alpaca/merino blend spinning fiber arrive on my doorstep a few Fridays ago, I knew how I was going to spend the upcoming weekend. I should probably say this now: if you are into precision and repeatable results, this may not be the instructional post that you are looking for! When I dyed yarn for Lorna's Laces, precision and repeatability was the name of the game (and rightfully so!); now that I am dyeing for fun in the comfort of my house, I really enjoy experimenting to see what results I get, even if I can never replicate them again. I strongly encourage you to try the "fun" and "unscientific" approach to dyeing as a stepping stone to the more technical aspects. There can be a lot of costly supplies to get started dyeing, whether you choose to try natural dyeing or use commercially-made chemical dyes; however, an easter egg dye kit is cheap and easy to, and I c...

I'm excited to introduce the Sweetest Baby Hat , which I designed to match the Sweetest Baby Socks - together, they make a totally sweet baby gift! This adorable hat is nice and stretchy to accommodate fast-growing noggins. It uses the same stitch motif as the  Sweetest Baby Socks ; both can be knit with just one 50g skein of fingering weight yarn to create a lovely duo that’s great for gifting! The patterns are sold separately for $4 each, but if you purchase them together in my Ravelry store, you will automatically get $2 off . Also, if you have already purchased the  Sweetest Baby Socks  pattern, you will  automatically get the $2 discount when purchasing the Sweetest Baby Hat . They are shown here in A Good Yarn Fingering in the Jewels of Autumn colorway; it's a specialty base available at www.agoodyarnsarasota.com which is available in a variety of semi-solid and variegated hand-dyed colorways. I highly recommend giving this yarn a try: it's a ...

First off, I'd like to announce the winner of my giveaway! Congrats to komclaughlin, I will contact you to find out where to mail your copy of Curls by Hunter Hammersen . Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway; I hope you'll continue to read my blog, because I have more fun things planned for this year (and yes, even some more giveaways). And now, on to the WIPs....I started one new project this week, the Foliage Cowl by Patty Nance, which I cast on for the Holla Knits KAL . I'm using two skeins of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky in Blackberry, which I won during a Holla Knits subscriber giveaway last year. I'm still making progress on the Block Island Pullover - I finished the back on Monday night and am now working on the front: I haven't been working on my handspun Caesious as much, but I think it's still grown since this time last week : Perhaps the most exciting progress to report is the near-completion of the MCN baby sweater in Frill...

Instead of making sweeping resolutions of all of 2015 which I will probably forget about by the spring, I have decided to set monthly goals for the sake of manageablility. I know there are several bloggers who have been using this idea to great effect (though can I pull any of those names out of the air right now as I type?! No! If you can recall the names of these blogs, please feel free to name-check and post links in the comments!), so I don't think I'm really introducing a novel concept per se. However, it's already February and I haven't mentioned anything about my 2015 crafting goals yet, with the exception of talking about a monthly spinning project here . For shame! In addition to a monthly spinning project, I want to could get through my design backlog and publish something new at least every other month. Originally, I wanted to shoot for  every month, but I know that's just not practical for me, especially when designing is still very much a side gi...